A composer whose name is not listed above is important to
the genesis of the music on this richly enjoyable CD. Vincenzo
Albrici was born in Rome in 1631, nephew of two composers,
Fabio and Alessandro Costantini, son of a singer, Domenico
Albrici. As a choirboy he sang and studied under Carissimi.
Early in his twenties he took to the wandering life
so common amongst Italian musicians of this period,
working as a court musician and composer in Stockholm,
Stuttgart, Dresden (where he stayed for some time)
and elsewhere, In August of 1663 he was in London (along
with his brother Bartolomeo. The Diary of Samuel
Pepys contains more than one reference to Albrici and
his music and Albrici seems to have been in London,
in the service of Charles II, until April 1669. As
Peter Holman points out in the booklet notes for this
reissue of Hyperion CDA66817, Vincenzo Albrici was
the composer of the earliest datable sonata for trumpet
and strings, written during his years in Sweden, between
1652 and 1654; there’s a performance on another Helios
issue – CDH55192 - Italian BaroqueTrumpet
Music. Whether or not Albrici was really the very
first to write such music is neither knowable with
any certainty nor perhaps terribly important; what is immediately
important is that it seems to have been Albrici who
introduced to the musical world of London the idea
that trumpets might be employed as more than an instrument
for military and ceremonial fanfares and that they
might, indeed, play a full life in the growing repertoire
of instrumental music. It is, in a sense, the fruit
of Albrici’s influence that we hear on this present
CD, in works written by composers based in London,
notably Purcell as well as some of his contemporaries
and successors.

Purcell’s three contributions consist of the fairly basic Symphony
from The YorkshireFeast Song; the more
elaborate Symphony from The Indian Queen, which
is an adaptation of materials from the Ode ‘Come, ye
sons of art, away’, plus a new final movement, in which
the writing is subtle and the playing is both spirited
and precise; and, of particular beauty, the Symphony
from the final act of King Arthur, music which accompanies
Britannia’s appearance, rising on an island from beneath
the stage.

Gottfried Finger seems doomed to an unfortunate fame as the man who
came last in the 1701 competition to set
Congreve’s masque The Judgement ofParis,
beaten by John Weldon, John Eccles and Daniel Purcell
and who supposedly left England in a huff. In fact
his three sonatas are
entertaining and often witty. The first of the three,
for trumpet, oboe, violin and continuo is particularly
fine, elegant and inventive. The second, for trumpet,
violin and continuo and the third, for trumpet, oboe
and continuo, are also never less than interesting,
quite subtle in their interplay of voices.

The
same British Library manuscript (Add. MS 49599) which
contains Finger’s sonatas also includes work by James
Paisible and John Barrett. Paisible, who was born in
France, worked in London from 1674, as an oboist, player
of the recorder and of the bass violin, as well as being
a composer. His sonata, for two trumpets, harpsichord
and strings, is in three movements, two allegros framing
an adagio; the sonata by John Barratt, for a trumpet,
oboe, harpsichord and strings, follows a similar pattern
(allegro-largo-allegro). In both one hears anticipations
of later concerto structures.

Three
native English composers – John Eccles, William Croft
and William Corbett – are also represented in this well
planned anthology. Both the Suite by Eccles and Croft’s
Overture were written for specific ceremonial occasions.
The composition by Eccles, written for Queen Anne’s coronation
in 1702, was published (in Harmonia Anglicana of
1702) minus the trumpet part it obviously needs, and
for this recording that part has been supplied by Richard
Platt and Peter Holman. It is a convincing piece of musical
restoration. Croft’s impressive Overture, in four movements
for trumpet and strings, dignified without overstatement,
prefaced an ode which Croft wrote for performance in
Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford when he was awarded
his D.Mus. in July 1713. William Corbett’s assured suite,
in nine short movements is scored for two trumpets, two
oboes, bassoon, harpsichord and strings, was surely written
for some specific ceremonial occasion, or possibly for
a grand theatrical event, though we don’t know now what
the occasion might have been. The music is attractively
various, achieving that winning fusion of continental
and English idioms which Purcell had pioneered, drawing
on the work of European musicians such as Albrici and
Matteis (see Peter Downey’s ‘What Samuel Pepys Heard
on 3 February 1661: English Trumpet Style under the Later
Stuart Monarchs’ in Early Music, 18, No.
3, August 1990).

Throughout
the recording the playing of the soloists is exemplary,
as is the accompaniment directed from the keyboard by
Peter Holman. This is a thoroughly enjoyable – and historically
valuable – sampler of early English trumpet music.

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